Newnan unable to finish off Colquitt

Colquitt County scored the first and the last runs of a doubleheader split against Newnan during the team’s first-round Class AAAAAA state playoffs series to forced a deciding game today.

But the Lady Cougars were the dominant offensive lineup on Wednesday, enough for Colquitt’s lineup to seem satisfied to have fought off elimination.

Newnan pounded out 10 hits over six innings in Game One for a 10-1 victory to put the Lady Packers on the brink for the second time in three years, but couldn’t finish the job after battling from two-runs down in game two.

Instead, Colquitt fought back for a 4-3 walk-off win in Game Two, scoring the tying run just moments after Newnan took its final lead and the plating the game-winner on Amber Kling’s RBI single during a team-leading 3-for-4 performance.

The split sets up a deciding game today at Newnan between the Lady Cougars (22-8) and Lady Packers (18-11) for the right to advance to the Class AAAAAA Sweet 16 next week.

Two years ago, Newnan eliminated Colquitt County in a doubleheader sweep to reach the second round of the then-Class AAAAA playoffs.

That pattern seemed to follow along in Game One on Wednesday, with the Lady Cougars belting out four extra-base hits on home runs from Arden Jobe and Leslie Davis and a pair of doubles by senior third-baseman Lindsay Stewart.

Both Stewart and freshman Leslie Davis finished led Newnan with 3 RBIs, including run-scoring hits during a five-run fifth inning that began with the Lady Cougars looking to build on a 3-1 advantage.

Jobe’s two-run blast over the center-field fence began a two-out rally that featured five consecutive hits. Stewart’s first double scored senior Chaycie Goggins, who singled. Pitcher Tori Loveless moved Stewart around before Davis helped plate the final run of the inning with a single to left.

Stewart, who finished 2-for-3 along with Goggins, ended it by mercy rule on her final double in the bottom of the sixth.

Lauren Ferguson and Shania Colton also had hits in the opening victory for Newnan, with Loveless holding Colquitt to four singles.

Newnan was forced to rally back in both games, and while quickly able to respond from a 1-0 deficit against the Lady Packers in the opener, the team couldn’t put as much distance between itself and this year’s third-place finisher from Region 1-AAAAAA in Game Two.

Batting as the visitors, the Lady Cougars scratched out two runs to tie the game in the top of the third on an error and Stewart’s two-out infield single, then went ahead the following inning on Ferguson’s one-out double to center.

From there, however, Newnan was unable to move runners around despite leadoff single by Jobe and Loveless in the fifth and sixth innings. Scarbrough equally was hit by a pitch to lead off the seventh but couldn’t advance.

A pair of infield singles kept Colquitt alive in the bottom of the seventh, the latter with two outs to put runners on first and third. Kling then followed with a line drive up the middle on an 0-1 count to give the Lady Packers the win.

Jobe and Shania Colton each went 2-for-4 to lead the Lady Cougars, who picked up three hits and 4 RBIs from Stewart in the doubleheader split. Loveless finished with six strikeouts and just one walk on the mound over both games.

Kling and teammate Cheyenne Tillman (2-for-3) combined for five of Colquitt’s 11 hits in Game 2.